Birth Bias
River Academy is giving birth bias the red card!
It’s an age old debate in learning, not just football development, does your month of birth give you an advantage or disadvantage?
In football there are so many other variables in learning, the player, environment, coach, ethos, parents, other sports or facilities that it’s really difficult to give a definitive answer.
Having coached for 20 years and in the last 6 years specialised in foundation phase coaching I do believe it does have an impact, short term the advantage is usually with the older players in the group but long term I believe the advantage is with the younger players in the group.
A simple example, if 2 players had exactly the same variables would be:
2x Under 7 players, one has a birthday 1st September and the other 31st of August, they both started training when they became 5 years old. At the start of the season the September birthday is now 7 and has played for 2 years. He is playing alongside an August birthday who turned 6 days ago so he’s played for 1 year. The younger player has had half the playing time so a clear disadvantage.
Obviously this is the widest gap possible in terms of birthday, an extreme example, but because of the age that year difference is massive. Fast forward now to the end of the Under 11 season that 1 year playing gap is still there but it’s not as big in relative terms, what was 50% less football played at Under 7 by an August birthday compared to a September birthday is now 20% less at Under 11. They’re catching up.
As the players get older the gap continues to close, but what was a disadvantage in physicality and maturity to the August birthday becomes less of an issue, now the September birthday is potentially at a disadvantage. They have never struggled physically but others are catching up, they’ve been used to running riot and never being challenged, they haven’t had it as difficult as the August birthday so when it starts getting hard they can have problems with mentality and confidence. Any child who’s had everything their own way in any aspect of life can find it very hard to cope when things become difficult for them. They haven’t in many cases developed the work ethic, desire and determination of those who’ve had the disadvantage, these are facts of life but are mirrored in football development.
So what’s the solution for an even playing field?
We take away birth bias and we give players the opportunity to be the oldest, the youngest and everything in between.
At River Academy* it won’t start straight away until our groups are settled but we will be having the same age players training together. Not their football age, Under 7 for example has a mixture of 6 and 7 year olds, this will be all the 7 year olds, all the 8 year olds etc training together.
Consider this…
A player is 7, they are about to turn 8 so they’re the oldest in the 7 year old group. Once they turn 8 they suddenly become the youngest in the 8 year old group. Over a 12 month period all those players turning 8 will move in to the 8 year olds group and the player gradually becomes the oldest player again. Over a 12 month period EVERY player will have been the youngest and gradually become the oldest. There will be periods of having it easier, periods of having it more difficult, being challenged or maybe not being challenged and dominating which is great for confidence. This approach gives success and failure, it gives a smooth ride and also bumps in the road so we are developing football ability and strong mentality.
Unfortunately this approach is not something that then transfers easily to teams and league football so there will be times a player is playing in their football age but training in their actual age. This isn’t ideal but the River Academy set up is about development and we believe a variety of challenges amongst a variety of players is better for development and character building. Ultimately if players aspire to play in a Professional Academy or Professional football then they will have times playing school/football age, playing year of birth tournaments, be played up or played down so it’s a great way to not only develop their football but mentality and social skills.
Our games program which will include travelling to play numerous professional academy set ups and inviting teams for games which will allow us to take this approach in to them games. I also believe the lack of consistency within their training group is a positive, over 12 months they will train with and up against far more players this way and the lack of familiarity can focus the players. There are no cliques or distractions you get with familiarity.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, if it’s something you think would benefit your child please contact us at riverjuniors@outlook.com.